Trumbull couple charged in embezzlement given time to find attorney

Published 9:20 pm, Thursday, April 18, 2013

STAMFORD -- During a short hearing Thursday at state Superior Court in Stamford, a couple accused of embezzling about $40,000 from the Westport spray-foam insulation company they worked for was given five weeks to find attorneys to represent them on criminal charges.

When they return to court May 30, Dominique Phravixay, 40, and her boyfriend, Cayenne Dew Phaosoung, 39, both of Craig Lane, Trumbull, are to plead not guilty to charges of first-degree larceny, third-degree larceny, forgery, conspiracy and hundreds of counts of illegal use of credit cards.

Phravixay and Phaosoung, who were freed after posting $50,000 and $30,000 bonds, respectively, were arrested by Westport police in March after the owners of EcoLogic made a complaint in mid-January that money had been stolen from the company.

According to their arrest warrant affidavits, Phravixay was hired part-time to help with bookkeeping and eventually took over supervising the company's financial operations and payroll. Phaosoung began working for the company in October and quickly became the company's warehouse manager.

Later in 2012, the owners began to notice problems with the company finances when checks began to bounce, vendors were not getting paid and its bank account was routinely overdrawn.

Near the end of December, when they realized that Phravixay and Phaosoung were cashing their paper paychecks while also receiving their pay via direct deposit, they began to suspect that the two were bilking the company, the affidavits said.

Pravixay claimed to police that she was owed some of the money and intended to pay the rest back. Phaosoung told police he did not know about the finances, that Phravixay took care of them.